Have You Heard About Insolvency Law Online?

Backsides and Bankruptcy

We have seen on the blog before how bankrupts could be pilloried and have their ears removed. Similar comparative corporal punishment treatment could be seen in China as late as the mid-eighteenth century where bankrupts would be taken into the custody of the local Governor. The debtor would then be required to give the whereabouts of his effects. If he did not disclose the whereabouts of his effects but items subsequently came to light, he would be punished in the following manner:

"the bankrupt is bamboo'd on the backside, if discovery is made of any of his effects of his (the punishment is such, as none, scarce survive; it is so grievous, that no person in all China may, of his own authority, inflict it upon another, upon pain of death, and confiscation of his goods.)"[1]